Mammals have evolved an elaborate, multifaceted immune system to respond to the ever-present threat of infection by pathogenic microorganisms. Bacterial, protozoan and fungal pathogens have responded ...

Intraspecific variation in plants can affect soil organisms. However, little is known about whether the magnitude of the effect depends on the degree of interaction with the roots. We analyzed effects ...

While evolution involves changes in organisms that we can observe, they undergo evolution at a deeper level, too. That is, changes affect the "letters" (four different types of chemical units) in the ...

Abstract: Theoretical and practical difficulties occur when defining the units of selection in modular organisms that grow by iteration of repeated parts (modules). Modules may become physically ...

Concerns about biodiversity tend to focus on the loss of species from ecosystems, but a new study suggests that the loss of variation within species can also have important ecological consequences.

Microorganisms—bacteria, viruses and other tiny life forms—may drive biological variation in visible life as much, if not ...

RNAi is a powerful tool to used to define cellular mechanisms, and analyze the gene functions of various organisms in laboratories worldwide. Credit: petarg/ Shutterstock.com Fragments of RNA ...

In nature, ecosystems are tightly linked through the flow of organisms, detritus, and nutrients across boundaries arbitrarily imagined by humans. These systems are deeply in tune with seasonal changes ...

Special proteins known as prions, which are perhaps best known as the agents of mad cow and other neurodegenerative diseases, can also serve as an important source of beneficial variation in nature, ...

The impact of ocean acidification on species in different parts of the world has been miscalculated, so far, and its impact in some cases over- and in other cases underestimated, an analysis of 86 ...